HomePoliticsIn continuing political slugfest Shiv Sena delivers jolt to BJP in Nashik

In continuing political slugfest Shiv Sena delivers jolt to BJP in Nashik

Pune: In the continuing political slugfest between the now bitter rivals, Shiv Sena on Friday delivered a jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by welcoming two of its important local leaders, Vasant Gite and Sunil Bagul from Nashik district into the Sena fold. 

According to sources, the defection of former MLA from the Nashik Central Assembly seat Vasant Gite and Sunil Bagul will weaken BJP’s hold over the Nashik civic body which goes to polls in 2022. 

Dubbing their return as “a homecoming of old Shiv Sainiks”, Sena Rajya Sabha MP and spokesman Sanjay Raut, who presided over Gite and Bagul’s entry to the party fold in Nashik, claimed that more BJP leaders were on their way to joining the Sena.  “The political winds are changing in Nashik. The next Mayor will be from the Shiv Sena,” predicted Raut. 

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The Sena leader remarked that it was significant ‘homecoming’ ceremony for the two to be held in Nashik. Raut further said that both leaders had met with Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s official residence ‘Varsha’ earlier this week. 

Both Vasant Gite and Sunil Bagul were to be formally inducted into the Sena in the presence of Thackeray at a function at the Thackeray family residence ‘Matoshree’ later. After quitting the Sena, Vasant Gite had joined the Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and was its contact person in Nashik before he defected to the BJP in 2014. 

In the 2017 civic body elections, the BJP had swept the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), bagging 66 of the 122 seats. The Sena had come second, winning just 35 seats.

Both, Sena and BJP had reaped rich political dividends from the collapse of the MNS in Nashik district as the MNS at one time had held sway over the north Maharashtra district, winning the NMC polls in 2012 to emerge as the single-largest party at the time.  

Despite notching impressive performances in the 2012 polls to the Pune and Nashik civic bodies, internal bickering and haphazard campaigning caused the gradual decline of the MNS, with many among its top brass defecting either to the ruling BJP or the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).   

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